Science : Oxygen is the stuff of memories

INHALING pure oxygen for 30 seconds can double your recall of what happens in the next couple of minutes, according to researchers who addressed the annual meeting of the British Psychological Society in London this week. They say the effect lasts for 24 hours.

The stimulating influence of oxygen is well-established folk wisdom among professions with access to the gas. Pilots sometimes pass the time by trying to memorise lists of passengers' names and where they are seated, and an oxygen boost makes the task easier, says Andrew Scholey, a psychologist at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Now Scholey and his colleague Mark Moss say they have conclusively shown in six controlled trials that oxygen significantly improves short-term memory, reaction time and attentiveness. A mask supplied some participants with pure oxygen and the others with ordinary air, which is about 20 per cent oxygen. Neither group knew ...

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